Austin is not the only city to suffer. Word has just been received that
our local Santa Barbara County WIC's state-award-winning program will be
cut so far back next month as to almost not exist. The three IBCLC
positions are being eliminated, leaving just the WIC nutrition
counselors to do the work. While most of these people have had a
lactation educator course, they have but 10-15 minutes per visit in
which to cover all their bases with moms-- and breastfeeding is just one
part. The "program" will now be boiled down to mostly policy and
education, but very little practical support. The population that has
the most language barriers and that can afford to pay for services the
least are losing the best help they had in town.

In the current system, mothers who needed more time and help were
referred to one of the IBCLCs, plus one of the IBCLCs did phone help,
handling about 90 calls a month. Next month, if a mother's problem can't
be helped in 10-15 minutes, she's going to be out of luck. On top of
that, there is fear that the pump loan program may also be in jeopardy
because the person who was in charge of tracking the pumps is one of the
IBCLCs who is losing her position and being demoted to a nutrition
counselor again. We've had a wonderful program that loaned Ameda Elites
and Medela Lactinas to mothers who had to return to work, return to
school, or who were having breastfeeding problems or whose baby was
sick, but now this is all up in the air.

It is amazing and disheartening to see a program win an award and then
be essentially shut down the same year. Our local WIC is run by the
county, and the county does not feel that they can afford to absorb
*any*  costs at all because of budget cuts. The breastfeeding program
was funded largely (90%+) by grants, but the county wanted more for
indirect costs (17.5%) than most grants will pay (10-15%). To avoid any
shortfall at all, our WIC has now been *forbidden* to apply for any more
grants for breastfeeding and the IBCLC positions are being deleted, a
move that prevents bringing them back in the future. President Bush has
just committed $20 million to the WIC breastfeeding program, including
to fund IBCLCs, and we will not be able to tap that. However, we *will*
fund a new medical marijuana program, a needle exchange program,
etc...... Sigh. They just don't get it.

~Lisa Marasco

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